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477 posts categorized "Media Matters & Misfires"

December 05, 2009

by Bill Kavanagh: As Brad DeLong is fond of saying, "Why oh why can't we have a better press corps?"

It's pretty disheartening, just as President Obama has announced he'll be going to the Copenhagen Climate Conference at its closing (implying a possible deal to announce on carbon emission reductions) to see that the WaPo is instead playing up the ridiculous 'Climategate' story so prominently. It's a great distraction for those who'd rather bury their heads in the sand than deal with the reality of climate change, but a real disservice to readers who by now should have little doubt of the severity of the crisis we are into.

I remember when the Post was a beacon for press freedom and independence. Do you?

October 15, 2009

Bill Frist never had 60 votes. Bill Frist never cared. Republicans
ran the Senate as if they owned the place, even when enjoying
razor-thin majorities.

Yet when Democrats took the chamber, the first thing Harry Reid did
was complain that he couldn't do anything because he didn't have 60
votes.

Then voters delivered 59 votes. And Harry Reid whined that he still
couldn't do anything. In fact, nothing would ever get accomplished
unless they had 60, and to do that, they had to bring turncoat Joe
Lieberman back into the fold..You see, we were told, Joe Lieberman is with us on everything except
the war! So we need him for 60, and when we have 60, everyone will get
ponies! And if Lieberman strays, why, Evan Bayh said Senate Democrats
could punish him!...

Good thing we never believed his bullshit, because neither Bayh, nor
Reid, nor any of the ineffective corporatist Dems would ever let this
sort of thing actually happen. Lieberman knows this, which is why he's
once again making common cause with Republicans.

So once again, Reid is complaining that he doesn't have 60 votes, which
is why they need to anoint Olympia Snowe as de facto President of the
United States. Maybe SHE will get us to 60! But we all know Snowe has
no intention of voting for real reform, and yet Reid (with White House
backing) continue to let themselves get played. It's all a farce.

So much for 60....So that's that. The notion of "leading" is clearly a non-starter for
Reid, according to his office. Well, glad Reid's office has admitted as
such. Time for new leadership. (More)

In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her Halliburton/KBR co-workers
while working in Iraq and locked in a shipping container for over a day
to prevent her from reporting her attack. The rape occurred outside of
U.S. criminal jurisdiction, but to add serious insult to serious injury
she was not allowed to sue KBR because her employment contract said
that sexual assault allegations would only be heard in private
arbitration--a process that overwhelmingly favors corporations.

This year, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) proposed an amendment that would deny defense contracts to companies that ask employees to sign away the right to sue.

Oh, that's nice. That's really nice. So it is a bit jarring -- in more ways than one -- to read allegations that the White House apparently considers concerned gays part of the "internet left fringe" (as if that were a bad thing). From John Aravosis:

"Tomorrow night President Obama will speak before a gay rights group,
and on Sunday there will be a massive gay rally in Washington, or as I
call it, the Million Mo March. Which makes this weekend the perfect
time for Obama to announce he's repealing "don't ask, don't tell" and
committing to a full-throated endorsement of gay marriage. One, because
it's the right thing to do and two, because it will throw the
conservative base into such a frenzied, pants-shitting panic that
they'll drop all that BS about death panels and socialism and let us
all get some actual work done.

"But of course that's not going to happen. I can tell you what the
president is going to tell his audience tomorrow: How much he supports
them. How much he agrees with them. And how he wishes he was President
so he could help them out.

"We as a party have spent the last six months, the greatest minds in our party, dwelling on the question, the unbelievably consuming question of how to get Olympia Snowe to vote on health care reform," he said. "I want to remind us all that Olympia Snowe was not elected President last year. Olympia Snowe has no veto power in the Senate. Olympia Snowe represents a state with one half of one percent of America's population."
"What America wants is health care reform," he continued. "America doesn't care if it gets 51 votes in the Senate or 60 votes in the Senate or 83 votes in the Senate. In fact, America doesn't even care about that, it doesn't care about that at all."

October 07, 2009

Grayson and Maddow discusses the character of his comments; Maddow shows some footage of equally shocking Republicans. In other news, Maddow appears to be one of many who don't know that "holocaust" has a meaning predating World War II. For the nation's indifference to the thousands who have died because they couldn't afford a doctor, I'd call it le mot juste.

by Damozel | Schultz explains the distinction between discourse on the House floor and an outburst during a Joint Session of Congress. In case I haven't mentioned it lately, Anthony Weiner is my other favorite Democratic warrior. "Eric Cantor must think the bill fairy pays the hospital bills" for the uninsured. Weiner says of Grayson, "Usually we don't let freshman speak, but we gotta get this guy out there more."

by Damozel | This is how you do it. When civility gets you nothing but FAIL, this is how you counter the untrue jeering and the lies that just won't die.. This is what we send people to Congress for. From The Hill:

"America is sick of you, Republican Party; you're a lie factory, that's all you do," he told MSNBC on Thursday. "Why don't you work together with the Democrats to solve America's problems instead of making stuff up?"

Grayson
then called the party a bunch of "no-mongers."...

"The people
who should be apologizing are the Republicans, they're the ones who
should apologize for dragging us all through the mud here while we're
just trying to improve healthcare in America," he said. "That's all
we're trying to do."

by Damozel | I'm just so damn relieved that somebody is finally saying it and that the someone in question is Florida's Alan Grayson. Watch Tweety call Grayson "a Martin Luther" and the GOP blowhards such as Limbaugh "clowns" and calls Glenn Beck "what's his name, Beck." Grayson says that bullies always back down.

by bartleby the scrivener | "The Democratic supermajority fails to pass health care reform, but succeeds in funding abstinence-only education." Yeah. When I call them "gutless invertebrates" I mean it in the most loving way. :